Mail Balloting Idea Offers Hope

Of Sharply Boosting Voter Turnout

April 24, 1994

Suppose they held an election and everybody had to stay home and vote by mail?

The concept sounds odd, but "mail balloting" is similar to regular absentee balloting and has proven its effectiveness elsewhere in Florida in sharply boosting voter turnout. Now it's being tested locally to see if it can live up to its promise.

That testing is under way in Cooper City, where it was suggested by City Councilman Barry Warsch. Starting last week, the city's 12,000 voters began receiving mail ballots asking them to approve a $2 million bond issue to complete a sports complex. Unlike regular elections, none of the city's eight polling places will be open. Instead, voters will have until 7 p.m. May 10 to return the ballots by mail to the county elections supervisor's office for signature verification and counting.

A 1987 state law permits mail balloting for referendum questions only, not for choosing public officials and not on the same day as any other regular election.

City Clerk Susan Bernard says she doesn't know how voters will react to the novelty, "but I hope they will react favorably and we'll have a good turnout in excess of 70 percent."

That would be astonishingly high for a special city election in Broward County, and far more representative of the true "will of the people."Last Nov. 2, only 19.5 percent of city voters went to the polls.

But 70 percent is a "business as usual''

turnout in adjacent Collier County, according to its elections supervisor, Mary Morgan.

For the first mail ballot election there, in 1989, she said turnout ranged from 65 percent to 80 percent in different areas. In 1991, turnout in two elections was 55 percent and 70 percent. In 1993, turnout in three elections ranged from 73 percent to 80 percent. Compare that to the 11 percent turnout in 1981 for Collier County's last countywide special election held in the usual way.

2.) Voters have weeks, instead of only a few minutes, to study the ballot questions, and obtain information about them before voting. 3.) Taxpayers might save money because elections supervisors don't need people to staff polling places or deliver and pick up voting machines, although mailing costs are higher.

4.) Last-minute charges and countercharges can be avoided. Anyone seeking to influence voters must do so weeks before election day.

The U.S. General Accounting Office has concluded that mail ballots are an effective option to enhance voter turnout.

Mail balloting sounds promising. Cooper City's results should be closely watched by city and county commissioners and state lawmakers to see if the mail balloting idea should be expanded. If it works for referendums, why shouldn't it work for candidate elections, too?